Jolly Green Dragons!

Four Bolton School Sixth Form students have made successful
pitches to an eco-dragons' den panel made up of powerful green
champions from the worlds of business and commerce.

Three Sixth Form boys - Neil Hati-Kakoty, Ahmed Ammori and
Rizwan Malatagar - made a pitch for financial assistance with their
plan to build and place a number of benches in wildlife "hotspots"
around the Bolton School campus. The boys plan to use reclaimed
wood and to construct the benches in Technology lessons. They
received £400 and the plan, in the first instance, is to produce
two benches. Sixth Form girl, Jamilla Flaherty, received £600 after
her pitch to produce an eco-friendly radio station.

The event was organised by the Lancashire Wildlife Trust
Trailblazers Project, which comprises a number of colleges and
sixth forms from the Bolton and Preston region and holds
fortnightly meetings. The event was supported by Tellus Mater
Foundation and v, the youth volunteering charity,
at The Wildlife Trust's Environment Education Centre in
Preston.

The Eco Dragons saw college students pitching for a total of
£8000 in prizes, to support their environmental projects. Each
group was given two hours training and assistance before their
presentation by eco-specialists and they all performed
exceptionally well, handling questions from the eco dragons with
ease. Students were delighted when all the projects secured the
money they pitched for, with one group even being awarded
double!

Other ideas paraded in front of the panel included producing a
pantomime to raise awareness of recycling; equipment for bushcraft
activities; setting up vegetable patches in school grounds; and
renovating part of a canal.

The passion the young people had for the projects clearly showed
and the Eco Dragons loved the originality of the different
projects.

"We were worried before the event that the projects would be
rather similar, but after hearing about a pantomime delivered by a
6ft badger, it's safe to say no one can accuse you of being
unoriginal" said Eco Dragon David Stevenson.

Event organiser Julia Simons said, "It's a great chance for
young people to help the environment in the way they want. It's all
their choices and their decisions. We're really impressed with how
they have taken the opportunity to do something unique."

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Successful Sixth Form boys collect the Bolton School cheque from the Eco Dragons